Public Domain Kurosawa Films Available at Google Video

Update: These films are now available with English subtitles.

Some of you may remember my earlier post about pre-1953 Japanese films being in public domain. While I am still a bit shaky in this particular subject matter (I am far from being a lawyer), it now seems that someone is uploading at least some of Kurosawa’s old films to Google Video.

The quality of these movies obviously leaves much to be desired, and there are no subtitles either (I suppose those are not in public domain). Yet, it is interesting to have them there.

Currently, there appear to be two whole Kurosawa films available on Google Video: Rashomon and Sanshiro Sugata. As these were added on October 3rd and October 6th, respectively, I will be monitoring the site for any further additions. As for now, below are direct links to the current files: